A security force operation in Honduras is cracking down on a little-known drug trafficking organization known as Los Pinto, a clan that may be benefiting from debilitating blows to other criminal groups.

Costa Rican and Honduran authorities busted a transnational drug ring allegedly involving over a dozen police officers from the two countries, raising suspicion that the operation was connected to the recent capture in Costa Rica of one of Honduras' biggest drug traffickers.

The alleged head of one of the most powerful drug trafficking groups in Honduras has been captured in Costa Rica and will reportedly be extradited to the United States, where he could reveal information about the involvement of the Honduran military and elites in the drug trade.

Honduras Profile

One of the poorest countries in Latin America, Honduras is now also the region's most violent and crime-ridden country. This is, in part, due to its role as a strategically important transit nation for the transnational drug trade, as well as macroeconomic shifts, endemic poverty, corruption, and political turmoil. Estimates vary, but between 140 and 300 tons of cocaine are believed to pass through the country each year.

A security force operation in Honduras is cracking down on a little-known drug trafficking organization known as Los Pinto, a clan that may be benefiting from debilitating blows to other criminal groups.

Costa Rican and Honduran authorities busted a transnational drug ring allegedly involving over a dozen police officers from the two countries, raising suspicion that the operation was connected to the recent capture in Costa Rica of one of Honduras' biggest drug traffickers.

The alleged head of one of the most powerful drug trafficking groups in Honduras has been captured in Costa Rica and will reportedly be extradited to the United States, where he could reveal information about the involvement of the Honduran military and elites in the drug trade.

The United States' Embassy in Honduras has warned of an increase in the demand for Honduran "coyotes" to smuggle people into the United States, a sign that President-elect Donald Trump's electoral victory is already influencing the region's criminal dynamics.

The Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will launch a tri-national force aimed at disrupting the movements of street gangs that are increasingly crossing borders in order to coordinate criminal activities and flee security crackdowns.

Honduran officials say seizures of illegal firearms at border checkpoints are increasing rapidly, as the market for millions of illegal firearms continues to grow and fuel violence in the Central American country.

Authorities in Honduras are investigating legal officials who allegedly accepted bribes to wipe clean the records of officers removed from their posts in a police purge, exposing a new layer of corruption in Honduran institutions.

The recent arrest in Honduras of a lesser-known suspect in Venezuela's “narco nephews” case may bring to light additional information about the trafficking network involved, given the defendant's potentially key role in the international drug scheme.

A recent report highlights the alleged collusion of Honduran military personnel with drug traffickers along the country's remote eastern coast, suggesting Honduras' current security force reform should also include the country's military.

Investigations

The United States -- which through its antinarcotics, judicial and police attaches was very familiar with the routes used for smuggling, and especially those used for people trafficking and understood that those traffickers are often one and the same -- greeted the new government of Elias Antonio...

When considering the possibilities that the FARC may break apart, the Ivan Rios Bloc is a helpful case study because it is perhaps the weakest of the FARC's divisions in terms of command and control, and therefore runs the highest risk of fragmentation and criminalization.

On May 27, 1964 up to one thousand Colombian soldiers, backed by fighter planes and helicopters, launched an assault against less than fifty guerrillas in the tiny community of Marquetalia. The aim of the operation was to stamp out once and for all the communist threat in...

The FARC have always had a love-hate relationship with drugs. They love the money it brings, funds which have allowed them to survive and even threaten to topple the state at the end of the 1990s. They hate the corruption and stigma narcotics have also brought to...

If we are to believe the Colombian government, the question is not if, but rather when, an end to 50 years of civil conflict will be reached. Yet the promise of President Juan Manuel Santos that peace can be achieved before the end of 2014 is simply...

Ricardo Mauricio Menesses Orellana liked horses, and the Pasaquina rodeo was a great opportunity to enjoy a party. He was joined at the event -- which was taking place in the heart of territory controlled by El Salvador's most powerful drug transport group, the Perrones -- by the...

In August 2002, the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) greeted Colombia's new president with a mortar attack that killed 14 people during his inauguration. The attack was intended as a warning to the fiercely anti-FARC newcomer. But it became the opening salvo of...

In October 2012, the US Treasury Department designated the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as a transnational criminal organization (TCO). While this assertion seems unfounded, there is one case that illustrates just why the US government is worried about the future.

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About Us

InSight Crime is a foundation

dedicated to the study of the principal threat to national and citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean: organized crime. We seek to deepen and inform the debate about organized crime in the Americas by providing the general public with regular reporting, analysis and investigation on the subject and on state efforts to combat it.